The Liberty Pen in 2010

   Whether you choose to say twenty-ten or two-thousand and ten, it is time again for out with the old and in with the new.  Following our theme from last year's Advent calendar, I'm still in a patriotic frame of mind.  For our New Year's pages I have been thinking about liberty for quite some time now and America in general.  This year the theme is - The Liberty Pen in 2010.

   Everyone knows what a pen is and most likely you use one on occasion. In contrast to speaking or using an erasable pencil, to 'pen' something takes on a greater significance and a more permanent status.  What is spoken may be argued over and even forgotten, but once it is has been penned, it becomes a record or a testimonial and the writer or writers become marked out for credit or criticism.

   Very few people seem to understand the difference between freedom and liberty.  In fact, most people believe they are both the same. They are NOT the same!

   One could take benefit from certain freedoms while still not being at liberty to enjoy them at will.  We talk about and even sing about freedom in this country and we even have a history of 'freeing' certain members of our population. Case in point, our darker skinned brothers and sisters were once slaves in the very country which was supposed to be free to all.  Many were freed, even before Abraham Lincoln signed the 'Emancipation Proclamation,' but they were not at liberty to enjoy that freedom, fearing reprisal or re-capture from their former masters.  Even the Emancipation Proclamation did not free all, only certain ones and in certain areas of the country, even while slaves were still in White House.  If you doubt this, read it for yourself.  These freedoms then were gifts and not part of our "...inalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."  Those rights were bestowed upon us each and all, endowed by (like it or not), our creator.  So it is written; so it has been penned.  Whether our founding parents understood or believed in practice that all men and women are created equal or not, does not inviolate these truths and the records which have been penned.

   Our freedoms are wholly dependent upon our having the Liberty to enjoy them at will.  If I were in prison, I could be given certain privileges and freedoms to move about inside, but I would not be at liberty to leave. Freedoms then mean little, unless we have Liberty.

   I love this country and I am a naturally born citizen.  That pretty much means:

   1.  My parents were born here and I had no choice where I was born

   2.  I can run for President of the United States (not that I have any such idea)

   3.  Often, new citizens (those not born here), know more about this country than I do.

   To understand what Liberty means and what this country means to you, I need to understand what this country means to me.  This is the purpose of these New Year Pages.  As with this theme, The Liberty Pen in 2010, along with my art and images there are also my words.  I thought it appropriate to often use a font or typeface similar to that of Thomas Jefferson, who penned Our Declaration of Independence.

example of the font I use inside these pages

   Now I do not compare myself to Jefferson, but I thought if I penned my words in a similar handwriting style as he, perhaps I would get a greater feel for the times in which our country was founded and when our precious writs were first penned.

   It is my desire that the following pages are a blessing to you; that they inspire you to think, and dream; to speak and to pen the words of Liberty in this beautiful, but fragile experience called, the United States of America. WE have been given much and WE have this liberty and WE have these rights and freedoms.  But WE cannot afford to take them for granted. OUR writs penned over 200 years ago, many think belong upon a shelf of unseen, unknown and un-living relics from OUR long ago past.  But these words, OUR founding words, are still just as apropos to OUR day and time, as they ever were.  They are still fresh and vital and living.  And they are worth OUR collective all to fight for them; to fight for ourselves; to fight for each other and to fight for our posterity. Not only does the future of our nation depend upon OUR being united in this, so does the hopes of all the world that also, desire the Liberty WE each so freely enjoy.

   Happy New Liberty! 'The Liberty Pen in 2010!'

1 of WE, 

Dahni